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Modeling Antarctic ice shelf responses to future climate changes and impacts on the ocean
Citation
Kusahara, K and Hasumi, H, Modeling Antarctic ice shelf responses to future climate changes and impacts on the ocean, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 118 pp. 2454-2475. ISSN 2169-9275 (2013) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2013 American Geophysical Union. Kusahara, K., Hasumi, H (2013), Modeling Antarctic ice shelf responses to future climate changes and impacts on the ocean, Journal of geophysical research: oceans, 118, 2454-2475, 10.1002/jgrc.20166. To view the published open abstract, go to http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jgrc.20166
Abstract
We investigate basal melting of all Antarctic ice shelves by a circumpolar ice
shelf-sea ice-ocean coupled model and estimate the total basal melting of 770–944 Gt/yr
under present-day climate conditions. We present a comparison of the basal melting with
previous observational and modeling estimates for each ice shelf. Heat sources for basal
melting are largely different among the ice shelves. Sensitivities of the basal melting to
surface air warming and to enhanced westerly winds over the Antarctic Circumpolar
Current are investigated from a series of numerical experiments. In this model the total
basal melting strongly depends on the surface air warming but is hardly affected by the
change of westerly winds. The magnitude of the basal melting response to the warming
varies widely from one ice shelf to another. The largest response is found at ice shelves in
the Bellingshausen Sea, followed by those in the Eastern Weddell Sea and the Indian
sector. These increases of basal melting are caused by increases of Circumpolar Deep
Water and/or Antarctic Surface Water into ice shelf cavities. By contrast, basal melting of
ice shelves in the Ross and Weddell Seas is insensitive to the surface air warming,
because even in the warming experiments there is high sea ice production at the front of
the ice shelves that keeps the water temperature to the surface freezing point. Weakening
of the thermohaline circulation driven by Antarctic dense water formation under warming
climate conditions is enhanced by basal melting of ice shelves.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | ice, shelf-sea, ice-ocean modeling |
| Research Division: | Earth Sciences |
| Research Group: | Climate change science |
| Research Field: | Climate change processes |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Policy, Climate Change and Natural Hazards |
| Objective Group: | Understanding climate change |
| Objective Field: | Effects of climate change on Antarctic and sub-Antarctic environments (excl. social impacts) |
| UTAS Author: | Kusahara, K (Dr Kazuya Kusahara) |
| ID Code: | 109275 |
| Year Published: | 2013 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 45 |
| Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
| Deposited On: | 2016-06-07 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-10-30 |
| Downloads: | 178 View Download Statistics |
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